SOME would argue that the most shocking thing about former President Donald Trump’s televised “town hall” on CNN last Wednesday (May 10) was that a major news network, regarded by both critics and supporters as a liberal outlet, decided to permit the disgraced Republican president and now a front-runner for the presidential nomination of the GOP, a platform to broadcast what amounted to campaign publicity. It even instructed the moderator to address Trump as “Mr President”.
Others would note the irony that the media event during which the former president raised the importance of law and order and traditional family values and vowed to “make America great again” took place a day after a New York jury decided that Trump had committed sexual abuse and then defamed his victim.
And then there was the former president accusing the American mainstream media, including CNN, of spreading “lies” and “fake news” and doing just that on live television. He insisted once again that he had won the 2020 presidential election that the Democrats and the liberal media, including CNN, had stolen from him. And he lauded his imaginary accomplishments as president, including supposedly completing the construction of the famous wall across the US border with Mexico and helping pass the “largest tax cut in history”.
But perhaps the most disturbing matter about Trump’s CNN television show is that, appearing cool and collected on the stage, he was greeted by a standing ovation by the audience in the early primary state of New Hampshire. They applauded when he mocked the woman who accused him of rape, and then they laughed when the ex-president referred to former House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi as “crazy” and blamed her for the Jan 6, 2011 insurrection on Capitol Hill, which he described as a “beautiful day” and called the rioters “patriots”. And then the members of the audience chuckled when he steamrolled the moderator, cutting her off with, “You’re a nasty person”.
If that wasn’t troubling enough, then came the silence of most of the leading Republican leaders, including Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who is considering running for president in 2024, in response to Trump’s grotesque performance on CNN. That, according to opinion polls, reflects the sentiments of the majority of Republican voters who apparently want to see the former president run again next year.
Pundits cannot understand how – against the backdrop of the never-ending personal and political scandals that have engulfed him, being impeached twice by Congress and indicted in New York on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and other federal charges, and in the face of numerous state charges – Trump continues to maintain a lead in the Republican primary race for president, with the rest of the prospective candidates (mostly clean-cut and scandal-free in comparison) trailing
Earlier expectations suggested that DeSantis may succeed in challenging Trump in the Republican primaries. But recent opinion polls as well as comments by GOP activists indicate that the Florida governor may be losing momentum among many Republican primary voters who see him as being too aloof, and believe that his lack of warmth and charisma explains why he has failed to excite crowds.
On the other hand, it seems that while DeSantis has tried to win the support of members of the Republican electoral base by helping to pass tough restrictions on abortion in Florida and by campaigning against corporations such as Disney, which he has accused of embracing “woke” agendas, this same strategy may have alienated moderate and suburban Republican voters who once regarded him as a possible alternative to Trump.
It should be recalled that one major reason why Trump had captured the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 was the reality of the 16 other candidates who faced him in the race which helped provide him with a plurality.
That scenario could repeat itself next year even if, say, only eight Republican candidates enter the race and create an electoral equation that would allow Trump to emerge once again as a winner. If anything, his electoral base of GOP supporters is now much stronger than it was in 2016.
Many Democrats admit that they would like to see Trump win the Republican nomination, confident that he would lose again in the general election. Referring to opinion polls that show that President Joe Biden remains unpopular even among many Democrats, pundits are reassuring everyone that – hey, don’t worry. When it comes to a Trump-Biden race, the Democrat is going to beat his rival thanks to the anti-Trump sentiments among Independent voters, women and suburban Republicans with college degrees. Just like in 2020.
But they and other political pros in Washington were certainly shaken by the results of a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll that showed President Biden losing head-to-head races against candidate Trump, with the former president winning among young voters while closing the gap with Biden among Black and Hispanic voters.
Indeed, the results of that poll should remind everyone that President Biden won the presidential race in 2020 by beating then-President Trump in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan and Pennsylvania by very narrow margins.
It would have taken only a few thousand votes to switch from candidate Biden to President Trump in Georgia, Arizona or Pennsylvania, or for some of them to decide to stay at home and not vote, to change the outcome of the election.
It’s quite likely that a combination of surging inflation, the growing power of the left-leaning wing in the Democratic Party, and the continuing mess with the illegal immigrants on the southern border, not to mention concerns over President Biden’s age, could lead many Independent voters and moderate Republicans to stay home during the next election or even switch to the Republican side.
But then you can be certain about one thing: All of candidate Trump’s supporters will show up at the polls next November to ensure that their man wins, scandals or not.
To put it differently, don’t expect any new charges against Trump, accusations of rape or business transgressions, and his visits to the courts, to make a big difference in the coming months. Recall how many times journalists (including yours truly) and politicians had predicted that “this time Trump is finished”. He was not!
Unless President Biden and the Democrats come up with a game-changer, such as nominating a new vice-presidential candidate, no one should be surprised! surprised! once again if Trump returns to the White House in 2025.